Model UN wins 19 awards at Arkansas Conference

By Press release submission

Dec 5, 2022

This past weekend the St. Michael Catholic High School Model United Nations (UN)
team competed in its first Arkansas Model UN Conference with prowess and poise, winning 19 awards, including the second highest award.

On Thursday, November 17th, 2022, the St. Michael Model UN Team traveled to Conway,
Arkansas to participate in the 57th Annual Arkansas Model UN (AMUN) Conference. The 34 St. Michael students were part of the over 400 students from 26 high schools from Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas competing in AMUN 2022. The St. Michael students were lead by Head Delegates Lauren Wood (Austria), John Traveis (Belgium), Madeline Pitre (Bolivia), Tradd McDaniel (Czech Republic), Margie Cowles (Denmark), Daniel Mitchell (Estonia), Jack Garrison (Greece), Justin Barfield (Lithuania), and Natalia Pyatt (Portugal). Head Delegates were chosen based on their position paper writing and their ability to serve as role models to their fellow St. Michael delegates and as resources to newer members.

After two days of committee sessions, the St. Michael team earned 19 awards during the
Closing Ceremonies, the second most awards earned among all schools at the conference. St. Michael received seven of the twenty Best Position Paper Awards, more than any other school. St. Michael countries recognized for this achievement included Austria (LeeAnn Bonner, Lauren Wood, Mackenzie Taylor, Hayden Barber), Belgium (Olivia Ford, Maggie Mattison, John Traveis, Sophie Musselman), Czech Republic (Jeb Bathrick, Conner Brown, Tradd McDaniel, Judah McAleer, Mimi Smith), Denmark (Margie Cowles, John Newman, Minna Sellers, Lexi Kruse), Greece (Jack Garrison, Nora Ruffin, Cade Beitler, Caity Beaman), Lithuania (William Erickson, Justin Barfield, Andrew Kieran), and Portugal (Anna Randle, Natalia Pyatt, Oliver Hemby, Lina Ramos, and Morgan Blackinton).

Lexi Kruse and Mimi Smith were selected by their fellow committee members for the
prestigious award of Rapporteur or Delegate’s Choice Award, accounting for two of the five Rapporteur Awards for the committees St Michael students served on. Each gave a report before the entire General Assembly regarding their committee’s progress during the conference.

Numerous students were recognized individually for their public speaking skills by the
conference administrators. Jeb Bathrick earned an Outstanding Delegate Award while Caity Beaman, Conner Brown, Lexi Kruse, Judah McAleer, Tradd McDaniel, John Newman, Mimi Smith accounted for St. Michael’s seven Outstanding Delegate Honorable Mention Awards.

For delegation or country awards, St. Michael earned a Best Delegation Runner-Up
Award for Czech Republic (Jeb Bathrick, Conner Brown, Tradd McDaniel, Judah McAleer,
Mimi Smith), the conference’s second highest award, in just the team’s first participation in the conference. St Michael also earned a Best Delegation Honorable Mention Award for Denmark (Margie Cowles, John Newman, Minna Sellers, Lexi Kruse).

With the 19 awards earned at the Arkansas Conference, the St. Michael team has now
earned 133 awards in the team’s three-year history. This success is due to the school’s dedication to Model UN with 75 students or over 20% of the student body, involved in Model UN. Of the 34 team-members that participated in the AMUN Conference, 29 or 85% won one or more awards. In addition, senior Mimi Smith and junior Lexi Kruse each won four awards (Rapporteur, Best Position Paper, Best Delegate Honorable Mention, Best Delegation Runner-Up/Honorable Mention), the most awards an individual can win at the Arkansas Conference.